Category Archives: challenging racism

Allyship Progamme – starting 23 February 2021

Continuing with our ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign, 23 February 2021 sees the start of our Inclusive Allyship Programme as a four part series looking at the values, behaviours and actions of Allies within Kent.

Allies will play a key role in supporting the University to advance its Equality agenda by linking with the staff networks, to support them with events and activities; be driven by staff lived experience and expertise; and support various stakeholders across the University to drive a culture of inclusion.

We continue our partnering with Liverpool John Moores University and City, University of London, and Inclusive Employers in delivering the Allyship programme with a cohort of 40 people across all 3 institutions.

Inclusive Allyship Programme (Part A)

Delivered by Inclusive Employers, the programme will take place over several weeks to allow for reflection and action between sessions. Each session will be one hour long.

Aim of the programme:

Understand what makes an Inclusion Ally and how it relates to three key areas: values, behaviours and actions.
Explore privilege, circles of influence, and the boundaries of the role.
Explore frameworks and techniques to challenge exclusion and have challenging conversations.
Create an individual plan of action.

Session 1 (Introductory Session) – “Welcome to Allies” webinar (23 February 2021 – 11.00)

Values: why are Allies important? – We’ll take a look at the purpose of Allies at the University and the wider context, including anti-racism and structural discrimination.
Behaviours: how do Allies make a difference? – We’ll discuss privilege and power and how this can be utilised to make the workplace more inclusive, identifying the boundaries of the Ally role.
Actions: what do Allies do? – We’ll look at specific projects and initiatives Allies can support, and the actions they will be taking over the next 4 weeks

Further information and a full list of additional dates corresponding to the Allyship programme, can be found on Staff Connect. There are places still available so don’t forget to book your spot!

Take the Expect Respect Module

Here at Kent, we want everyone to be treated with dignity and respect. Therefore, we have taken proactive steps to ensure you are well informed and know about the support available.

The Expect Respect module is a compulsory module for all registered students at the University of Kent, regardless of what you are studying or whether you are an undergraduate or postgraduate student.

The Expect Respect module outlines the behaviours we expect of you whilst you are with us as well as what you can expect from both the University and your Students’ Union. The module will dig deep into issues of racism, bias, sexual harassment and consent; it will challenge you to think about your own behaviour, the way you interact with others and the impact this could have on someone else’s experience.

This module will demonstrate how to report any incidents to the University so that you, or any student affected, can access the right support. It will also make you aware of the wide range of different support services available to you depending on your needs.

You can find the Expect Respect module on Moodle (code DP6636) – you should be automatically enrolled but if you have any issues please get in contact with Auzimuth Jackson at A.Jackson-502@kent.ac.uk.

BAME Staff Network All Staff Survey: Online feedback event – 10 February

Thank you to all of you who completed the All Staff Survey 2020 organised by the BAME Staff Network.

Please join us for a presentation and discussion of the survey findings on 10 February from 14.00-15.00. This event is for all staff – academic and professional services.
Click here to join the meeting

If you have any questions about the survey to email the Co-Chairs at:
bamestaffnetwork@kent.ac.uk

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on the 10th!

Bridget, Dave, Barbara and Vanisha, Co-Chairs of the BAME Staff Network

Reclaiming our Past: LGBT+ History Month blogs

A series of blog posts championing influential films, music, authors and historical figures has been launched to mark LGBT+ History Month.

The blog posts published so far on our EDI pages feature:

the inspirational author and activist Audre Lorde, written by Dr Stella Bolaki, Reader in the School of English
James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, described as a ‘stunning and startling piece of literature’ by Dr Declan Kavanagh, Senior Lecturer in the School of English

LGBT+ History Month, originally the idea of an American teacher in 1994, has been celebrated in Britain since 2005. Sue Sanders, who has spoken at the University, was one of the co-founders. It is held every February, marking the first attempt (in February 2000) to repeal Section 28, a highly discriminatory piece of legislation which made it an offence to ‘promote’ homosexuality.

The History Month serves as an important opportunity to celebrate LGBT+ histories and cultures, raising awareness by recovering the stories of those who are often erased (or ‘straight-washed’) from popular memory and making visible the achievements and obstacles overcome. Its remit is about ‘Claiming our past. Celebrating our present. Creating our future’.

Staff Network events

A series of events run by our LGBT+ Staff Network include LGBT in Lockdown – Wednesday 17 February from 18.00 and This Is Not My First Pandemic – Thursday 25 February from 18.00.

Our commitment to the Race Equality Charter

Kent is committed to the Race Equality Charter (REC), which aims to improve the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education. The charter provides a framework through which institutions work to identify and self-reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. REC is underpinned by five fundamental guiding principles:

Racial inequalities are a significant issue within higher education. Racial inequalities are not necessarily overt, isolated incidents. Racism is an everyday facet of UK society and racial inequalities manifest themselves in everyday situations, processes and behaviours.
UK higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of the whole population and until individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it affords.
In developing solutions to racial inequalities, it is important that they are aimed at achieving long-term institutional culture change, avoiding a deficit model where solutions are aimed at changing the individual.
Minority ethnic staff and students are not a homogenous group. People from different ethnic backgrounds have different experiences of and outcomes from/within higher education, and that complexity needs to be considered in analysing data and developing actions.
All individuals have multiple identities, and the intersection of those different identities should be considered wherever possible.

We are committing to following these principles in how they approach race equality and address their institutional culture, including in areas such as:

professional and support staff
academic staff
student progression and attainment
diversity of the curriculum

This is the start of a long process and although it may take time to see change we are committed to advancing race equality and creating a change in culture alongside all colleagues and students. We are aware that pockets of excellence at Kent have been addressing these issues, but a wider, systemic look at the ‘business as usual’ structures that often reflects non-inclusive norms of academic and institutional culture is crucial to the creation of an environment where people at Kent from all backgrounds are able to thrive and where tackling racism and advancing race equality is the responsibility of all. Self assessment team A key part of this work is the self assessment team, which will meet for three hours, once every two months with smaller, action related meetings and preparation in the intervening periods. Some of the members of the self assessment team will be senior role holders within Kent, and the team will be chaired by Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and the EDI lead on Executive Group as it is key that this work translates into action and structural change at Kent. We will also be inviting staff and student representatives from relevant network groups. In addition to this, we welcome expressions of interest from all staff and students – this may be to form part of the self assessment team or part of the wider sub teams as they are created. To express your interest in this work, please email with a brief paragraph on how you would like to be involved and any relevant experiences. We welcome expressions of interest from everyone, especially those who experience multiple structural disadvantages.

Launch of the Expect Respect module

Here at Kent, we want to make sure everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Therefore, we have taken a few proactive steps to ensure you are well informed and know about the support available. Next Monday we are launching the Expect Respect module.

The Expect Respect module is a compulsory module for all registered students at the University of Kent, regardless of what you are studying or whether you are an undergraduate and postgraduate student.

The module outlines the behaviours we expect of you whilst you are with us as well as what you can expect from both the University and Kent Union (your Student Union), and also digs deep into issues of racism, bias, sexual harassment and consent. It challenges you to think about your own behaviour, the way you interact with others and the impact this could be having on someone else’s experience.

The module will also make you aware of how to report any incidents to the University so that you, or the student affected can access the right support, and will also make you aware of the wide range of different support services available to you depending on your needs.

You can find the Expect Respect module on Moodle (code DP6636) – you should be automatically enrolled but if you have any issues please get in contact with Becky Lamyman on R.S.Lamyman@kent.ac.uk.

Kent signs up for Race Equality Charter

Vice-Chancellor Karen Cox has formally submitted Kent’s application for membership of the Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter.

The Race Equality Charter provides us with a framework to enable a significant step-change at the University, and through signing-up we reaffirm our commitment to race equality.

Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance will lead on this, working with colleagues and students across the University to ensure that the work required is understood, resourced and advanced appropriately.

Vice-Chancellor Karen Cox comments ‘On behalf of all of the Executive Group, I would like to thank colleagues and students who are working tirelessly to tackle racism through education, research, evaluation and engagement. I am confident that we have amongst us all the skills, knowledge and drive to make this step-change.’

We acknowledge that there is still much to do. We will update you on the next steps the University will be taking shortly and how you can get involved.

University welcomes BME society statement and demands

Eight of our BME student societies have made a joint submission to the University of their Statement of Solidarity & Call to Action to the University of Kent on institutional racism and the University’s need to take action.

Following on from our joint statement on racism with Kent Union, the University welcomes this submission and is committed to working through the issues raised. We have had conversations with groups of students over the last few weeks and will be continuing these. We are also inviting representatives of the societies named in the statement to meet with senior colleagues and the submission will be part of a discussion on our response to institutional racism at the next meeting of our senior management team, the Executive Group.

Many of our staff and students are actively working to address institutional racism and, following recent online forums, we have already begun additional work on a number of issues raised by members of the University. However, we recognise we have much to do to address these issues through our actions, training, education and through appropriate policies and procedures and we are committed to progressing these in partnership with our students and staff.

Online discussion of institutional racism – Tuesday 7 July

All staff are invited to an online discussion of ‘Understanding and Interrupting Institutional Racism: A Collaborative Dialogue to Communicate Strategies to Advance the Agenda at the University of Kent’, on Tuesday 7 July, from 16.00-17.15.

This collaborative dialogue will give staff an opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives on institutional racism with senior members of the University’s academic leadership team.

We want these discussions to disrupt structural factors that produce white privilege and systemic disadvantage, and to advance an agenda of racial equality. We invite all staff to reflect on their identities and social positions, taking an “intersectional” approach. This approach recognises that several aspects of (in)equality combine to shape experiences and perspectives. It therefore helps to explain why a Black woman, for example, may experience racism very differently than her Black brother, father or male partner.

The meeting is intended:

-To give participants an opportunity to share perspectives and experiences of institutional racism at work, including any recommendations for change, with the University’s senior academic leadership team.

-To give members of the University’s senior academic leadership team:

access to and information about staff experiences of institutional [or structural] racism at work
opportunities to answer [and to ask] questions about staff experiences of institutional [or structural] racism at work
a space in which to affirm commitments to addressing staff concerns about institutional [or structural] racism at the University.

The panel will include: Professor Karen Cox (Vice-Chancellor and President); Professor Christina Hughes (Interim Director of Student Services); Professor Richard Reece (Deputy Vice Chancellor – Education and Student Experience); Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura (Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance); Derek Baldwin (Branch Secretary, UNISON); and Sian Lewis-Anthony (President, University of Kent UCU Branch).

Discussion will focus on: the staff profile of the institution; decision-making boards and committees; equal pay; staff recruitment; progression and development; health and wellbeing support; sense of belonging; racial harassment; and racial discrimination.

We hope this event will be the first of many. There’s no need to sign-up – you can join live on Tuesday 7 July from 16.00 by clicking this link: https://bit.ly/2ZfYRJb

We look forward to seeing you (virtually) there!

Dave Thomas
Co-Chair University of Kent BAME Staff Network and Equalities Officer (UNISON)

Afro-Diasporic Legal Network Black Discussion Series

Law students Khaliq Martin and Siena Phillips and their team were successful with being awarded a Community Scholarship for a project aimed to empower and uplift BME students at the University of Kent – the Afro-Diasporic Legal Network (ADLN) Black Discussion Series.

What is the ADLN?

The ADLN is a collective of law students that encompass the intersection of being Black and from the African-Diaspora. It was created in recognition of a lack of Black legal supportive infrastructures at the University of Kent despite the fact that such systems exist in many institutions.

The network aims to provide opportunities for Black students in the academic/professional legal sphere, to conduct knowledge exchanges, and provide peer-to-peer support in hopes of decreasing the social attainment gap at the University recognized in the 2016 EDI Report.

The network was developed with 3 principles in mind: to support the political and legal education of Black law students, to provide academic, career, and wellness support, and to continue to push the bounds of inclusion for black students.

As an informal society the network is not registered with Kent Union.

What is the ADLN’s Black Discussion Series?

The Black Discussion Series is a pilot project that was developed by the ADLN after an internal assessment, conducted by its committee, highlighted that black students suffered from anxiety and stress as a result of institutional shortcomings. The Series seeks to mitigate these pressures which correlate with the social attainment gaps recognized by the EDI Report.

The discussions are designed for young black men, women, and non-gender binary individuals to deconstruct their university experience through a space created to resolve issues, establish peer-to-peer support, and incorporate academic dialogue from a political/legal lens.

The Series will take place this spring term 2020, for further information please email afrodiasporiclegalnetwork@gmail.com.